SuperMemo in Two or More Computers Synchronized (Part I)

SuperMemo portability is something very important, in fact that is one of the reasons many people prefer Anki to SuperMemo, of course many of those are people interested only in learning vocabulary, not even a whole spectrum of language skills.

I’ve been trying to synchronize my SuperMemo ever since I started using it, but its single file per component scheme would make this tasks… if not slow then to many steps would be involve.

Objetive:

“Use single or multiple collections on different computers and make the synchronization almost automatic if not completely automatic.”

This post is going to be divided in several parts, as I’m low on time available and because it makes more sense dividing it by the probable context of the synchronization process.

Many post on Yahoo group and elsewhere recommend using Dropbox for accomplishing the task, but this can’t be done with out certain troubles. Because supermemo doesn’t open files in the collection until they are needed making is lighting fast, but that means Dropbox could be uploading the last changes made to a register file at the same time while SuperMemo requires access to it. So, using SuperMemo and Dropbox at the same time results in I/O errors, at first those most of the time are troubleless but in some occasions it could lead to huge errors and corruption on the SuperMemo files. Yesterday fellow blogger Jerry Pettit asked me if a Autohotkey would solve the problem, then the idea of making this post came again to a high priority on my todo list.

Steps Required:

The steps needed to use supermemo on several computers by using Dropbox (a nice – online – free up to 2 GB – delta – multiple computer synchronization start up) are the following:

[Steps for windows XP and above]

• Join and Install Dropbox on all the computers you need to sync supermemo, configure Dropbox to start at system startup
• Move the collection(s) to a pre-made folder inside Dropbox folder (say: SuperMemo_Collections).
• Download and Install Autohotkey (a nice simple scripting program)
• Modify the AutoHotkey script to suit you own needs copy and saved with .ahk extension (say: SuperMemo&Dropbox.ahk). Link for download bellow.
• Drag and drop Supermemo&Dropbox.ahk to Startup folder from the start menu folders (Windows), this make  your script run automatically at logon.
• Repeat the same process for any computer you wish to sync.
• To start SuperMemo hit Win+Alt+s (or any other keyboard combination if you modify the script provided).

Always check your files are fully updated by Dropbox, before working on another computer.

(Download script: MediaFire)

I you have any troubles or some enhancements leave a comment.

Master Accelerated Learning

Mastering how to learn faster is something, we users of SuperMemo would love to getter better at (or any other SRS system Anki, FullRecall, Mnemosyne, Vtrain, etc..).   Colin Rose’s acronym for the steps needed is a six letter word: MASTER

1. Mind positively set
2. Acquire the Knowledge
3. Search for the Meaning
4. Trigger your memory
5. Exhibit what you know
6. Reflect on you learning

This involve the same principles you probably already heard of, mainly a learning suited context (internal and external), good information at hand (good sources), understanding before memorizing, setting some cue for better recall (mnemonics some times), and recall (showing what you know, otherwise is not useful to learn anything).

The last part of this acronym is the one that should lead us in become master learners, in fact without it we’re just a bunch of people wasting time by using our kindergarten or at best elementary learning skills. But, is something I constantly forget to do. We must reflect on the way and effectiveness of our learning skills, what you are doing right or wrong?, how can you improve it?, take the firm decision to make the necessary step in order to improve our learning habilities and again check if we sticked to this new habits for better learning afterward.

If only supermemo could help us with this task, remember us that we must improve our learning skills. Perhaps it can. One mistake at a time you can put them into items into SuperMemo, so you check out if you are following or not this new desired behavior. Remember to set the lowest forgetting index so that this item isn’t automatically postpone and gets a higher priority down the learning queue.

If you don’t use supermemo, that’s no trouble at all. I think we can even use a Cardbox ala Leitner, to improve our bad learning habits, even all of them.. ok, I think that’s way out of what’s achievable but then again maybe not.

Now, Where was that old shoe box?…

To memorize better block your eyes and ears.

I should have know better and never stop using my 30DB ear mufflers as well as a black taped eye glasses or eye protectors in order to develop a Superb Memory. From time to time some article reminds me that the less noise you have at  input, the better your overall learning experience results.

The number one cause of forgetting is not learning in the first place, a nice article on the topic concludes:

Dividing your attention can be enough to prevent you from detecting and paying attention to the relevant information. If you add stress, then your ability to detect what is relevant is compromised because it acts as a form of interference that prevents you from: (1) Paying attention (2) Determining what is relevant (3) Paying attention to what is relevant and ultimately encoding it. You cannot forget something you have not encoded in the first place! Each stage of memory is vulnerable to stress (i.e. consolidation and retrieval) and importantly, stress is not always an external influence on memory, what goes on in our mind can be a very potent source of stress interference.

This article included three tests about memorizing a list of 6 objects in different circumstances, how did I do on these tests? It took me 15 seconds on the first one (single task), 22 seconds on the second test (while tapping my leg with my hand), and 36 seconds on the last one (while repeating “Bla, Bla, Bla…”). Dam… I really should, at least, start wearing again those earmuffs.  I don’t want to loose the opportunity of learning more, just because I’m wasting more the double the time necessary for memorizing.

I have a good pair of ear mufflers, but my eye protectors are not black taped… yet! Remember a Superb Memory requires tools!

World best memorizer obituary – Kim Peek died.

Today I had a sad news, the “Kimputer” had died about a month ago. I though about posting or not the news – It doesn’t have much relationship with SuperMemo… then I understood -He probably had the most prodigious memory ever, how can this not be related to SuperMemo.

They called him Mega-savant, yet before “Rain Man” movie, starting Dustin Hoffman, they just called him Kim.  He was the model for the autistic character Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 film Rain Man.

He was born with many disabilities and by the time he was nine months old he was expected to be mentally impaired for life, yet he learned to read by himself, and later on to memorize every book he read. He memorized the entire Bible before his seventh birthday, later on he improve even more, reading and immediately memorizing thousands of texts, including the complete works of Shakespeare and every story in every volume of the condensed Reader’s Digest books.

He used telephone directories for exercises in mental arithmetic, adding each column of seven-digit numbers together in his head until he reached figures in the trillions.

As an adult he was named as a “mega-savant” because of this tremendous memorizing capacity, having a retention of 98 per cent of  the information he absorbed. He was considered by researcher as a genius in at least 15 subjects, including music, geography, history and mathematics. Most savants reach a similar level in one or two subjects.  His powers increased as he aged, sadly the “Kimputer” died on  December 19 at aged 58 from a heart attack.

The exceptional savant abilities where the reason I read much about him, who wouldn’t want to be able to learn almost effortless, but I was also inspired to read about autism and learned to be more compassionate with people with disabilities.

If you want to know about the real Kim Peek, in 1996 Fran Peek published a book about his son, The Real Rain Man: Kim Peek.

A more extensive obituary is found here.